Cyclone Center Launches New Website

With input from over 4,000 citizen scientists all over the world, CycloneCenter.org has launched a new version of its website for an even more enriching experience for users. A unique citizen-science project, CycloneCenter.org is a web-based interface that enables the public to help analyze the intensities of past tropical cyclones around the globe. Patterns in storm imagery are best recognized by the human eye, so scientists are enlisting the public. According to Dr. Carl Schreck, Research Associate at the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites–North Carolina, “It would take eight years for a trained analyst to do 210,000 image classifications. Our citizen scientists did that many in just eight months!”

The new website will teach volunteers more about tropical cyclones while also engaging them to do more classifications:

Volunteers can pick their favorite storm to classify and follow it through its entire lifecycle.

The new website provides more guidance to volunteers during the classification process.

Each week, volunteers will have a different storm from the record-breaking 2005 hurricane season, starting with Arlene, going through Katrina, Rita, Wilma and eventually Zeta.

Volunteers can now share their storm on Facebook and Twitter and invite their social communities to participate!

Dr. Carl Schreck added, “Every year, thousands of people are affected by hurricanes and tropical cyclones. Cyclone Center is a unique opportunity for the public to contribute to the science of these dangerous storms.”

CycloneCenter.org was developed as a partnership with NCDC, the Citizen Science Alliance, the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites, and the University of North Carolina in Asheville.